Topped out

 32 Mann Street

32 Mann Street site, 18th July 2018

The finance building at 32 Mann Street has topped out. Congratulations, gentlemen!

The site sits on part of the old primary school site, which we can more of here, and the materials and equipment are still stacked up there as finishing work goes on at the site.

Just for pretty. The goods lift silhouetted against the sky on a cold winter Wednesday.


 Lynne Avenue

Lynn Avenue's second site, the Central Real one, has topped out. Congratulations, gentlemen!

There is another Central Real site immediately behind this one and another immediately behind that one, on the corner of Albany Street and Duke Street Point Frederick. So there's plenty more work for all concerned.
 

 In this photo we can see the top floors at Lynn Avenue will have bigger balconies than those below. But all will be just 30 seconds strolling distance to the yacht club and the Gosford foreshore and a nice bit of exercise, 20 minutes' walk, to Gosford main street.


 Tiny houses

This is Bluey is the front-most of the tiny houses, on the 21st of July 2018.

The tiny houses topped out about a month ago and their residents moved in before the really freezing overnight temperatures came.

Congratulations, students, and congratulations, residents of these delightful tiny houses! These are Gosford's first tiny houses and it will be interesting to see if they are the last or if more are to come.

Mellow Yellow here is another of the 4 tiny houses. The other 2 are Lovely Lilac and Dove Grey. The 5th building on the site is the communal laundry. See here for clearer photos than the nice paling fence now allows.


 Extra

From what I can make out, this old railway water tank at Gosford station dates back to the days of steam. The steam trains started coming through Gosford, doing the Sydney to Newcastle run, in 1887 and steam is made from water, hence the need for water tanks so trains could refill at various points along the line.

According to Wikipedia "the water crane...is used occasionally by passing steam locomotives". Now they mention it, I recently saw the steam locomotive 3801 chuffing up the line towards Gosford.

Train spotters and railway workers, feel free to chime in in the comments box if I've got something wrong or you'd like to add some nice Sydney-Newcastle line info.

The same applies to all building site owners, managers, workers, apartment buyers and tiny house residents.

Hopefully next week's post will be on the day I say it will be but don't put your shirt on it!

Singo's tower AKA Bonython Tower

Towering over the Winter In The Park festival, 16th July 2018

It's cold enough for Kibble Park, in the green heart of Gosford, to host an ice rink and cold enough that our local building sites workers have to scrape ice off their windscreens to drive to work. And that's why I come late with my camera in winter!

Bonython Tower from Gosford railway station, 3rd July 2018

From the railway station, on the 3rd of July 2018, we can see the Bonython Tower is higher than the ridge behind it, Rumbalara Reserve. What a difference all these towers will make to our little valley town!

Singo's tower towering over Mann Street, 16th July 2018

As you walk along Mann Street, the main street of Gosford, you need to dodge the people just stopped staring up at the tower and speculating about when it will be finished and the scaffolding off, who's going to live there, how many more towers there will be and so on. Locals wonder, Sydneysiders up for a holiday wonder, foreign and interstate tourists wonder.

And I wonder how many or how few years it will be before there are no more of the little old 2-storey shopfronts along Mann Street and in the other dozen streets that make up downtown Gosford. Because Gosford is so physiclly small a town, squashed into the narrow mouth of the Narara Valley, the change in the look and feel of it will be enormous.

Exterior finishes in Paul Lane, 16th July 2018

Down in Paul Lane, at the back of the site, exterior work is finished on the residents' carpark level while it still goes on inside the loading bay on the office level and workers are still hard at it on the ground floor's restaurant level, in the cold afternoon shade.

Close to topping out, 16th July 2018

One whole worker and another worker's head, just visible through the blue safety mesh, right up at the top of the site on a cold breezy winter's afternoon. Topping out is very close now. I hope I'm there with my camera when it happens.

More sites coming later this week.


 Extra

Donnison Street overpass upgraded, taken 3rd July 2018

And it's not just new buildings towering over us. With the increase in population and the massive increase in building site trucks on Gosford's roads, there's been a lot of road upgrading going on too.

This particular upgrade and its workers were rained on almost non-stop and in winter too. Brrr.

From what I can make out, this overpass hadn't been upgraded since the 1970's. It was starting to show its age, as all things do, and the upgrade widened the pavement to take more traffic, added the railing to keep pedestrians safer and upgraded the road. Road workers, if I've left any upgrades etc. out, feel free to add them to the comments box. I always welcome more and better info.

On a purely personal note, I always appreciate road workers out there doing there job in all weathers and in the face of abuse from some members of the public. I know how well our roads in Australia are maintained compared to some parts of the work. There are some places in this world where the main streets of towns the size and busyness of Gosford are dust in summer and mud in winter.

So thank you, road workers and bridge builders. And thank you all workers who keep our streets and houses and businesses lit and supplied with electricity, thank you all workers who keep clean water flowing into our homes and businesses, thank you to all workers who keep our toilets and gutters functioning and, last but hardly least, thank you to those streeet sweepers I see on Gosford's streets sweeping up the discarded and windblown lolly wrappers and cigarette butts and worse things in our gutters and on our footpaths.

If I've left out any group of workers who daily keep Gosford's and the rest of Australia's streets and buildings functioning, forgive me and feel free to mention your group in the comments box at the end of this post.

Atlantis & the silent site

 Atlantis

Atlantis site in Ettalong, 12th July 2018

The Atlantis resort at Ettalong, looking south at Sydney's Barrenjoey Head lighthouse and right opposite the beach on Ocean View Road.

This site was begun last year and now looks the right height that topping out will come very soon.

Atlantis site in Ettalong, 12th July 2018

Atlantis basking in a winter afternoon's sun. Work was going great guns. The access to this site is the old laneway running from the back corner of the site (left in photo) through to near the fresh fish kiosk beside the roundabout (traffic circle).


 Silent site

Beane Street East site silent again, 12th July 2018

I got to Gosford's Beane Street East site just after three yesterday and it was as silent as the grave again. True, it's higher than it was last time I snapped it (April 2018) but three on a sunny winter afternoon is a time when a site is usually busy so I'm not sure what's going on now.

Beane Street East site on a dark 3rd July 2018

As we can see, the same site was crawling with busy workers on the 3rd of July 2018, a dark damp winter's day.

Beane Street East site silent again, 12th July 2018

Yesterday (12th July 2018) the crane was still, the site was silent and the gate was shut.

Powerlines vanished, 12th July 2018

As for the problem in April of the powerlines being close enough to the site to light up the workers, that's clearly been solved by simply taking the powerlines away.


 Extra

Morris ute on Blackwall Road Woy Woy, 12th July 2018

Lovely old Morris ute, seen opposite Woy Woy police station on the 12th of July 2018. The front is old Morrie but the ute back, and that little modern window, look like a recent modification.

Singo workers, I'll be back to your site very soon and, Lynne Avenue, to you too. You're both either topping out now or I've just missed your topping out.

Forgotten photos

 Kendall Street

2 cranes same angle, 24th April 2018

A lucky snap showing both of Kendall Street's 2 cranes at the same angle, on the 24th of April 2018. We can also see in this photo how narrow this street is for deliveries to and taking away from 2 building sites so close together, and we can also see how little parking there is, on the right hand side of the road, for workers' cars. (But Batley Street in West Gosford still has the worst access.)

I'm showing you these photos now because I took them just before I succumbed to the flu and they're too good to leave mouldering on my computer.


 Icon

Heading back from lunch to 'Icon', 24th April 2018

2 workers returning from their lunchtime to 'Icon', the upper site on Kendall Street.


 Vue

Prepping deliveries to be lifted, 24th April 2018

Deliveries being prepped for lifting by the crane operator at the 'Vue' site on Kendall Street. In the background, we can clearly see the Gosford football stadium and, beyond that, the northern end of Brisbane Water.

Scaffolding tower at 'Vue' site, 24th April 2018

Scaffolding tower rising up from the basement carpark levels of the site to the height of the site office in the old 1940's house next door.

Cool shade hot sun, 24th April 2018

I'm not sure if I've put this one up on this blog already but I don't have time to check and it's an old favourite of mine so I'm taking the chance. It's an old favourite of mine for a couple of reasons: 1) it looked lovely and cool down there in the shade on what I remember as a rather hot day in April, and 2) I just like the big columns of concrete towering up with the bright fluoro of the visibility jackets against the cool grey of the concrete.


That's it for today. More photos, and fresher photos at that, later this week.

Hargraves & Kendall

Hargraves Street is the steepest site in Gosford, taken 3rd July 2018

The workers in tiny, tucked away Hargraves Street are still slogging through the digging out phase. It's the steepest site in Gosford so that must be making it extra tricky.

Worker at lunch & materials stacked at Hargraves Street, 3rd July 2018

The Hargraves Street site is in a tiny and narrow street with a very steep drop on the other side of the road. The drop is as steep and covered in trees as the drop in Kendall Street but the road is narrower and one way. So access and storage of materials is a bit tricky. There's level ground for spoil and delivery vehicles and pump trucks to park on but that's the only thing making access to this site the second worst. (The worst is still Batley Street up on the peak of the hill in West Gosford.)

'Skye' site in Hargaves Street, 3rd July 2018

"Sanctuary amongst the trees" it says and that's no exaggeration. The rear of the building will face the serenity of the tree-covered Presidents Hill.


 Kendall Street

 Vue

'Vue' in Kendall Street very close to topping out, 3rd July 2018

In the upper right of this photo, we can see a nice long concrete pouring hose sailing up into the cloudy sky to swing across into the top of the site

This site will very soon be topping out and work is going gangbusters inside, with kitchens and bathrooms going in on the lower floors as I type.


 Icon 

'Icon' in Kendall Street, 3rd July 2018

On a cold gloomy day, at lunchtime, workers have readied another load of materials to be lifted into the site. This site is going gangbusters too, despite all the interference from the weather this past month or so.

Lifting into the site at 'Icon' on Kendall Street, 3rd July 2018

I love a good sequence of photos, a crane sequence being my favourite. I'm old enough to remember seeing men riding the loads as they were lifted and lowered. There was very little OH&S in the sixties.


 Extra 

'Apex' site in Donnison Street East, 3rd July 2018

The still dormant 'Apex' site, on Donnison Street East, just near the railway line and around the corner from the stadium.

I've been told they're waiting for the building next door, which we can half of on the right edge of this photo, to be knocked down. Its upper facade has been squared off but the stepped outlines of the original facade can still be seen. Like Monti's fish and chip shop opposite the Gosford waterfront, it was built in the 1920's - 1930's and the stepped outline is Art Deco.

More again in a few days and another crane count this month.

White whale, Singo, Lynne Avenue & WWII

 The view from afar

6 of Gosford's cranes visible from Pt Clare station, 29th June 2018

Today we're starting with an overview of the town. In this photo, only 6 of Gosford's cranes visible but there are currently more than double that many cranes working in Gosford. The photo was taken on the 29th of June 2018 from beside Point Clare railway station.

The next Crane Count and map are coming in July 2018.


 Bonython Tower AKA Singo's tower

Bonython Tower from Mann St footbridge, 9th of June 2018

Between the flu and the weather, this is as good a photo of Mann Street as I've been able to snap recently. Taken on the 9th of June 2018.

The angle makes the Bonython Tower look quite small but it's at least twice the height of the building in the left foreground.

Bonython Tower from Mann St footbridge, 9th of March 2018

What a difference 3 months has made! In this photo, the tower was unnoticed by some people. Now, as it is in the photo above, everyone stops and stares at it every time they go into Gosford.

(Singo workers, I'll be back for my more usual snaps of your site when I've caught up with all the other Gosford sites.)


 Lynne Avenue

Lynne Avenue site nearing topping out, 25th June 2018

Not long now, gentlemen. The Lynne Avenue site was close to topping out on the 25th of June 2018. And the weather in this photo is the ideal weather for building site photography: nice and dry for both photographer and workers. Pity it's not the same again today.


 White whale sighted at last

Hospital site between Holden Street & Showground Road, 9th June 2018

The hospital's Beane Street West building site. The blue-metalled access lane stretching up from the foreground to the back of the site is where Beane Street West used to be.

In the middle of the photo, on the right, we can see the construction itself going gangbusters at last, after months of earthmoving and foundation work on this tricky hill site. Right up the top, up past the curve of white and orange barriers and the earthmover still hard at work, we can see the tops of existing hospital buildings, near the emergency entrance of the hospital on the western side of Holden Street.

Hospital site between Holden Street & Showground Road, 9th June 2018

Due to flu versus weather versus traffic, I had to take these 3 snaps of the hospital site on a Sunday. I prefer photos with workers in them but photo access to this site has been a photographer's nightmare.

Workers' access is not much better and, with so much equipment stored within the fence and the buildings going up starting to crowd the site, I think you're going to have an even bigger squeeze soon. Good luck with it.


 Extra

Old Nissen hut in Miller Street Ourimbah, 9th June 2018

And now for something completely different: an old world War II Nissen hut on the edge of the university campus in Mills Street Ourimbah.

During the war, the land the university now sits on was used as a military training ground and there are a few remnants of that military installation still to be seen. There is another Nissen hut nearby, in a side street on the other side of the railway line. I'll add it when I spot it.


Okay, that's it from me for today. There's a pile of work waiting on my desk for me. I'll put some more photos up later this week and the Crane Count and it's new map will come this month too.